1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a buckle that can connect or fix a belt by being coupled to the belt, and more particularly, to a buckle equipped with a whistle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a buckle has been widely used in a fastening belt of a climbing knapsack or a school satchel. Particularly, goods using the buckle are used mainly in cases where a user takes activities out-of-door.
In other words, the goods using the buckle are widely used household goods. Particularly, when the user enjoys hiking, boating, camping or climbing in the fields, the user uses goods provided with plural buckles to fasten in various types.
On the other hand, during the outdoor activities, various emergency situations to require urgent rescue may occur. For example, the user's voice may be not transmitted far enough, or the user's voice cannot be heard because of ambient noise. Accordingly, it is desirable that the user participating in the above outdoor activities carry a whistle for safety.
Such emergency may occur to everybody. However, most users do not expect that the emergency happens to himself/herself. Accordingly, the user taking the above outdoor activities does not take care to carry the whistle. Therefore, there have been cases where the user couldn't ask for help because he/she did not carry the whistle when the emergency occurs to the user and thus has an accident.
FIG. 1 is an exemplary view illustrating a conventional buckle equipped with a whistle.
As described above, the buckle is used to couple various goods to each other, or to fasten the goods to a body of the user. For example, the buckle is used in a shoulder belt, a chest belt, a waist belt, a connection belt and a pocket belt of a knapsack.
On the other hand, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,668,428, there is disclosed a buckle wherein a whistle 12 is integrally provided to a buckle body, particularly, to a female receptacle 11 as shown in FIG. 1. Accordingly, the user who does a lot of the outdoor activities can always carry the whistle in case of emergency.
However, when the user wants to use the whistle by using the conventional buckle equipped with the whistle as shown in FIG. 1, the user has to use the female receptacle 11 connected to the belt after he/she separates the female receptacle 11 and a male latch 17 from each other firstly, which has been very inconvenient to the user. In other words, the conventional buckle equipped with the whistle as shown in FIG. 1 has a problem that the buckle 11 and 17 should be unlocked so as to allow the user to use the whistle because the female receptacle 11 and whistle 12 of the buckle are integrated with each other.
In addition, the whistle is always exposed to the outside because the whistle is integrated with the conventional buckle. Thus, appearance of the buckle is degraded.
In addition, as described above, there has been a sanitary problem because the whistle is always exposed to the outside. In other words, the whistle is contacted to a mouth of the user when it is used. Accordingly, the whistle is exposed to various exhaust gas and dusts while the user takes the outdoor activities, which is harmful to the user for sanitary reasons.